1. DMIS Tools Course Lesson 3 - Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Alerts
Welcome to Lesson 3 of the DMIS Tools Course – CAP Alerts.
We recommend you print out this course material as “Notes Pages.” That way, you can read along while you view the slides in Slide Show mode. You could also 3-hole punch the Notes Pages, place them in a binder, and keep it as a handy DMIS desk reference.
DMIS Web Services Release 2.3

2. Topics Generating a Quick CAP Alert Generating a “Full” CAP Alert
Understanding the Alerts List
Authoring
Areas Details
Resource Details
Attachments
Alerts from within an Incident Record
Topics covered in this lesson.
The DMIS 2.2 release is our first implementation of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standard. The CAP is a standard from the Emergency Management Technical Committee (EM TC) of the international OASIS standards development organization.
There are three ways to author and Post a CAP alert:
Quick CAP,
Full CAP Alert
Alerts from within an Incident Record

3. CAP Alerts (Quick and Full)
CAP defines a single message format with the essential features to handle existing and emerging alert systems and sensor technologies. This standard format can replace a range of single-purpose interfaces among warning sources and disseminations channels. CAP addresses the concerns about compatibility and operational complexity that have been stifling development. CAP is a breakthrough standard that opens the door to new alerting systems and technical innovation. For example, location-aware receiving devices can use the standardized geospatial information in a CAP alert message to determine whether that particular message is relevant based on the current location of the device.
A key benefit of CAP for sending alert messages is that the sender can activate multiple warning systems with a single input. Using a single input reduces the cost and complexity of notifying many warning systems. A single input message also provides consistency in the information delivered over multiple systems. People receive exact corroboration of the warning through multiple channels. This is very important, as research has found that people do not typically act on the first warning signal but begin looking for confirmation. Only when convinced that the warning is not a false alarm, do they act on it.
CAP is designed to be compatible with all kinds of information systems and public alerting systems, including broadcast radio and television as well as public and private data networks. Rather than being defined for one particular communications technology, CAP is essentially a "content standard": a digital message format that can be applied to all types of alerts and notifications. In this way, CAP is compatible with emerging technologies such as Internet Web services, and with existing formats such as the U.S. national Emergency Alert System and the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) used for NOAA Weather Radio in the U.S. CAP is also compatible with alerting systems designed for multilingual and special-needs populations. By reducing the barriers of technical incompatibility, CAP creates the foundation for a technology-independent national and international "warning internet".
A further benefit of CAP for emergency managers is that standardized warnings from various sources can be compiled in tabular or graphical form as an aid to situational awareness and pattern detection. When CAP is applied extensively, managers will be able to monitor at any one time the whole picture of local, regional, and national warnings of all types. CAP alert messages can also be used at sensor systems as a format for direct reporting of relevant events to centers for collection and analysis.
Note: Specific implementations of CAP Alerts may not expose all the information elements in the standard to the user. For example, there is a product used in police cruisers that only exposes 4 of the data elements to the human user.
The CAP-standard format gives first responders and emergency management personnel many options to include details and additional resources and the ability to attach electronic files (i.e., .doc, .xls, .pdf, etc) to a CAP message.
DMIS provides both “Full” and “Quick” CAP Alert authoring options.
Currently, DMIS Tools can only broadcast Alerts among computers. The need to distribute Alerts from computers to body-worn communications devices is understood, but not yet implemented in DMI-Services.

4. The CAP Alert List From the Alerts List you can:
View All, Working, Posted, Received and Expired Alerts
Open, Create (Quick or Full CAP), Edit, Save, and Post Alerts.
Select filters to sort the Alert list
For each Alert listed, the following fields are displayed:
COG Name
Version (working version = 0; version 1 created by Post action)
Name (Event or Incident Name)
Sent /Created Date and Time
Status (Actual, Exercise, System, or Test)
Scope (Public, Restricted, or Private)
Type (Alert, Update, Cancel, Acknowledge, or Error)
NOTE: To view expired Alerts, click the “Include Expired” checkbox and click the Refresh button.
The Alerts List is refreshed whenever the Operator saves, deletes, or posts an Alert.  The Alert List is automatically refreshed every three (3) minutes regardless of activity.  

5. Alert List Icons Icon Description Definition Working Alert
This version of an Alert is a draft form that has been saved for possible posting at a later time.
Posted Alert (can also have an attachment)
This version of an Alert has been posted to the COG so other members have received notification of the Alert and may review its details. A posted Alert may also have Attached files.
Working Alert with Attachment
This version of an Alert is a draft form that has been saved for possible posting at a later time. There are attached files that show or describe the subject event.
Alert Posted from another COG
This Alert has been received from another COG and may be sent in anticipation of a subject event (e.g. flood, tornado, etc) from a neighboring locality.
Alert Posted from another COG with an Attachment
This Alert has been received from another COG and may be sent in anticipation of a subject event (e.g. flood, tornado, etc) from a neighboring locality. The Alert contains attached files showing or describing the subject event.
The icons on the Alerts List indicate the status (working vs. posted vs. received) of the Alert and indicate whether the Alert contains any attachments.
Once you learn the meaning of the icons, you can quickly scan the Alert list and see the characteristics of the Alert records which are relevant to your COG.

6. Generating a Quick CAP Alert
There are two methods to create a “Quick CAP” Alert:
From the Quick Start menu immediately upon launching DMIS or
You can also generate a “Quick CAP” alert from the Alert list. (We show you this second option in the following slides)
If the New Alert button is “grayed out,” it means that the ALERTS privilege in your operator account is set to Null, the DMIS Tools default for all functional features when first installed. If you need to use the ALERTS features within DMIS, please contact your local COG Administrator/planner to establish the correct privileges for your role.
Let’s go through the steps for the method of generating a “Quick CAP” alert first, then come back and learn the steps for “Full” CAP.
Click the ‘New Alert’ button on the “DMI-Services Quick Start” screen.

7. Generating a Quick CAP Alert
After selecting “New Alert”, the Quick CAP Alert authoring screen presents.
Note: “Alert Title” is a required field. Severity, Certainty and Category fields are also required. These pick lists have “Unknown” as the default value. Click on the arrow to select from the pick list and select the appropriate value. When you are finished with authoring the Quick CAP message, click the OK button. You now only see the basic DMIS “blue screen” running the DMIS Messenger.
The following slides show you how to send this alert to others.

8. Posting a Quick CAP Alert
Whether starting a new alert, editing an existing one, or checking for a received alert, you must “pass through” the Alerts List somewhere in the process.
Access the Alerts List from the DMI-Services drop-down menu by selecting:
DMI-Services ► Disaster Management Tools ► Alerts List

9. Posting a Quick CAP Alert
To post a Quick CAP from the Alerts List:
Select the Working tab.
Highlight the CAP alert you created. Note: Your new alert is first in the “working” list (unless you have chosen to sort the Alerts List by some other criteria than the default).
Highlight your CAP Alert by clicking on it in the list.
Click the “Post” button.

10. Posting a Quick CAP Alert
To Post a Quick CAP Alert:
Click the Post button. The Post Alert screen opens.
Note: As an option, you can filter by COGS by Name, City, State and/or Zip Code to decrease the list size. COG names generally begin with a two-letter state designator (IL, VA, CA, etc.) or the government agency acronym (DoD, EPA, USDA, etc.).
Select the COG(s) to which you are posting the Incident.  If you haven’t filtered the list, you can also hold down the the CTRL key when choosing COGs for posting to select more than one COG.
Operators with “primary” privileges can post an alert for viewing on the Disaster Management National Map by checking the appropriate box.
Operators with “primary” and “update” privileges can post an alert to their own COG for viewing on via the “Disaster Management My Map” feature by checking the appropriate box.
Click the OK button to continue with posting the item. The Posting screen opens.
Click the OK button to post the item.  If you click the Cancel button, you will cancel the post.
Note: Once an Alert is posted, it cannot be edited and re-posted. Instead generate a new Alert and refer back to the original Alert by specifying its ID number. If an Operator tries to re-post an Alert, DMI-Services will display an error message: "An Alert with the same identifier has already been posted. Please choose a unique identifier."

11. Generating a “Full” CAP Alert (from the Alerts List)
Access the Alerts List from the DMI-Services drop-down menu by selecting: DMI-Services ► Disaster Management Tools ► Alerts List To start the “full” CAP Alert authoring process from the Alerts List screen:
Click the New Alert button, or
Select New Alert from the drop down File menu.
Note: You can also generate a “Quick CAP” Alert from the DMIS button menu when viewing the Alerts List.

12. Generating a “Full” CAP Alert
The Full CAP Alert screen contains two forms: (Alert and Optional Information)
The Alert form contains pre-populated fields:
Version Number (defaults as 0)
Sender (the name of the COG)
Sent /Creation Date and Time (date and time stamp).
And, there are also 3 required fields you need to fill in:
Status (select Actual, Exercise, System, Test or Draft)
Scope (select Public, Restricted, or Private)
Type of Alert (select Alert, Update, Cancel, ACK (Acknowledge), or Error)
The Optional Information form contains one pre-populated field:
Identifier - (creates a unique Alert ID number - “DM” followed by 19 digits). The Identifier may be modified as necessary. However, a COG may not have two alerts with the same Identifier.
And, there are optional fields should you need to use them:
The Note field is used to state the purpose or significance of the message, primarily intended for use with Cancel and Error alert message types.
The Operator or Device ID is the text identifying the source of the alert message. Depending on how the Scope of an Alert is set, other fields may apply. For example, if the Scope of an Alert is set to Restricted, you may specify the rule for limiting its distribution in the Restriction field. Or, if the Scope of an Alert is set to Private, the COG Operator may specify recipient identifiers or addresses in the Addresses field.
The Handling Codes field is for any user-defined special code used to flag or denote the alert message for special handling.
The Reference ID field is the unique ID of any prior Alert referenced by this message.
The Incident ID field may contain the identifier(s) of the incident(s) to which a multiple messages refer.
Steps:
Fill in both required fields and optional fields
Click the Save button on the DMIS button menu.
Next, it is time to add even more details to this CAP Alert. We’ll show you how on the following slides.

13. Additional Alert Information
Now that you have created the basic Alert “shell,” it is time to add additional information to the Alert message.
Steps:
In the CAP Alert you have created, use your mouse to double click on the blank line contained in the “Alert Detail” field.
The Additional Alert Info windows appears.
Note: There are 4 forms that allow you to populate 4 sections of the Alert message:
Alert Detail
Other
Areas
Resources
The next slide provides information about the Alert Detail form.

14. Alert Detail Tab
After you fill out all required and optional fields in the Alert Detail form, you can move on to another form or click on the OK button to close the Additional Alert Info window.
The Alert form contains required fields:
Event (Type in the name of the Event)
Urgency (Select Immediate, Expected, Future, Past, or Unknown);
Severity (Select Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor, or Unknown);
Certainty (Select Very Likely, Likely, Possible, Unlikely, or Unknown); and
Category - a pick list containing Geo, Met (meteorological to include floods), Safety, Rescue, Fire, Health, Environment, Transport, Infra, or Other.
There are also Optional Information fields contained in the form:
Headline - This field is there as the “attention getter”
Description - This field is the description of the threat.
Instructions – This text box can be useful if recipients need to take specific actions.
Sender Name - This text box is the agency or authority issuing the alert.
Effective Date – To select a date, click the Calendar icon and select the date and time when the Alert is effective
Onset Date - To select, click the Calendar icon to select the date and time at which an event is expected to occur.
Expires Date - Please use this field in each message in the same manner. A large-scale exercise showed that alert messages need to expire. Otherwise, they “hang around” the Alerts List and make it cumbersome.
Note: Alert Detail fields are designed to describe an expected or actual event in terms of how much time responders have to prepare (urgency), the impact the event may have (severity), as well as how confident the Alert-issuing agency is that the subject event will occur (certainty).

15. Other Tab The fields in the Other form are all optional.
Information URL - This field can be used to share a URL to a web page containing additional information relevant to the alert.
Contact - This field can be used to type in a person’s name, , and/or phone number as a main contact for follow-up and confirmation.
Parameter - This field is for the “listing of additional parameters associated with the alert message.” Your guess is as good as ours on that one...
Audience - This field can be used to identify the intended audience, for example, “EMT Staff.”
Steps to add information in the Parameters and Targeting Codes fields: (Each field contains 2 buttons – one to add a row and one to delete a row.)
Click on the add row button to add a line item.
Double-click in the Name and /or Value “cell” and add the information.
When you complete adding information in each “cell” – press the “Enter” key on your keyboard and move on to the next “cell”.
If you have no other information to add to the “Other” form, you can move on to another form or click on the OK button to close the Additional Alert Info window.
Steps to delete information in the Parameters and Targeting Codes fields: (Each field contains 2 buttons – one to add a row and one to delete a row.)
Highlight the line item you wish to delete
Click on the delete row button.
You are prompted to confirm your choice
Click “Yes” to delete
Note: Read this paragraph only if you are intensely interested in obscure details about the CAP standard and the DMIS implementation of it:
The Targeting Code is also called “eventCode” in the CAP standard and is defined as the system-specific code to identify the event type of the alert message. Values in the field may be any system-specific code for event typing expressed in the form “code_type=code” where “code_type” is a user-assigned designator for the target system. Multiple instances of Targeting Code may occur within a single block. This initial implementation does not allow for multiple instances.

16. Areas Tab
The Areas form can be used to express areas threatened within the scope of the alert. In DMIS tools, multiple areas may be defined by either a text description or GEOCODES. The Description field is used to enter text describing the affected or potentially affected area. The GEOCODES field can be used to enter any type of code representing a geographic area such a ZIP or FIPS codes. The CAP standard does not specify any particular GEOCODES. While that provides great flexibility, you need to have some assurance that the code set you use is understood by those receiving your alerts.
The Alert Areas details window contains specific information pertaining to the area specified. Description is the only required field when entering area data. The other four fields are not necessary and are too technical for this document.
Steps to add information in the Areas form:
After you select the Areas tab, You must first double-click on the blank line in the main Additional Alert Info window.
Doing this will bring up the Alert Areas form.
For the three fields (Geocode, Circle and Polygon) you will need to click on the add row button to add a line item as described in the last slide.
Double-click in the Name and /or Value “cell” and add the information.
When you complete adding information in each “cell” – press the “Enter” key on your keyboard and move on to the next “cell”.
If you have no other information to add to the “Alert Areas” form, you can you can click OK to go back to the Additional Alert Info window and continue to add additional information in the CAP message.
If you wish to add another line item in the Areas tab, you can click on the add row button in the upper right hand corner of the window.
Steps to delete information in the Areas form: (For Geocode, Circle and Polygon fields)
Highlight the line item you wish to delete
Click on the delete row button.
You are prompted to confirm your choice
Click “Yes” to delete

17. Resources Tab
According to the CAP standard, the Resources form can be used to refer “to an additional file with supplemental information related to this <info> element; e.g., an image or an audio file.” There can be multiple resources entered in the Resources group.
As near as we can tell, this group just provides more opportunities to refer to more supplemental resources beyond the Information URL field. If you use the Resources group, the URI pointing to the file and a Description of the file or its content must be entered.
You will rarely if ever use the MIME Type field. MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. It’s a specification for formatting messages so that they can be sent over the Internet carrying graphics, audio, and video files. Unless you know what that means, ignore it.
If you know the approximate target file size in bytes, it is a nice courtesy to put that in the Size field. That way, the recipient can decide if (s)he has time to retrieve the file given the bandwidth at hand. The Digest field, per the CAP standard, is “the code representing the digital digest (“hash”) computed from the resource file.” It’s an optional field. Ignore it unless you know what the functional value of placing a data in that field could yield.
Steps to add information in the Resources form:
After you select the Resources tab, You must first double-click on the blank line in the main Additional Alert Info window.
Doing this will bring up the Alert Resources form.
Add information
If you have no other information to add to the “Alert Resources” form, you can click OK to go back to the Additional Alert Info window and continue to add additional information in the CAP message.
If you wish to add another line item in the Areas tab, you can click on the add row button in the upper right hand corner of the window.

18. Saving the Alert
Once you complete filling out the Alert Detail forms you will find yourself back to the main Alert window. Now it is time to save the Alert.
To save the Alert – Click the “Save” button on the DMIS button menu.
The next slide shows you how to Post the Alert

19. Posting a CAP Alert
Quick CAP Alerts may only be posted from the Alerts List. You can Post your full CAP Alert from within the authoring screen after a successful Save. First, click the Post button on the DMIS button menu.

20. Posting a CAP Alert
Now that you clicked the Post button - The Post Alert screen opens.
Note: As an option, you can filter by COGS by Name, City, State and/or postal code to decrease the list size. COG names generally begin with a two-letter state designator (IL, VA, CA, etc.) or the government agency acronym (DoD, EPA, USDA, etc.).
From this point, the steps are:
Select the COG(s) to which you are posting the Incident.  If you haven’t filtered the list, you can also hold down the the CTRL key when choosing COGs for posting to select more than one COG.
Operators with “primary” privileges can post an alert for viewing on the Disaster Management National Map by checking the appropriate box.
Operators with “primary” and “update” privileges can post an alert to their own COG for viewing on via the “Disaster Management My Map” feature by checking the appropriate box.
Click the OK button to continue with posting the item. The Posting screen opens.
Click the OK button to post the item.  If you click the Cancel button, you will cancel the post.
Note: Once an Alert is posted, it cannot be edited and re-posted. Instead generate a new Alert and refer back to the original Alert by specifying its ID number. If an Operator tries to re-post an Alert, DMI-Services will display an error message: "An Alert with the same identifier has already been posted. Please choose a unique identifier."

21. Posting a Saved CAP Alert
You can also Save an Alert and choose to post it at a later time.
To post at a later time from the Alerts List:
Select the Working tab.
Highlight the CAP alert you created. Note: Your new alert is first in the “working” list (unless you have chosen to sort the Alerts List by some other criteria than the default).
Highlight your CAP Alert by clicking on it in the list.
Click the “Post” button.
Follow the directions on the previous two slides.

22. Editing an Alert
To edit Alert content, open the Alert from the Alerts List, CLICK THE EDIT DATA BUTTON IN THE DMIS BUTTON MENU. You can then navigate to those fields you need to change. Don’t forget to “Save” the Alert after you make changes.
Note: The following fields cannot be edited:
Version Number (the working version will remain as 0)
Sender (the name of your COG)
Sent /Creation Date and Time (date and time stamp)
HANDY TIP: Remember that you cannot edit or re-post a posted message. But what if you have posted an alert and then realize that you forgot to send it to one or more recipients? You can re-use the data in your posted alert. Simply select Version 0 (zero) of your posted alert, go to Edit mode, and change a digit in the Identifier field. Save it. Now you have a “new” message as far as the system is concerned and you can Post it to any COG you wish.

23. Generating a “Full” CAP Alert (from a DMIS Incident Record)
You may create a full CAP Alert while within a DMIS Incident Record. Two Alert fields will be automatically populated from values in the Incident Record: The Event field will contain the Incident Name, and the Description field will contain the Incident Description.
You can continue to fill out the remaining Alert Details just as you learned in this lesson.

24. End of DMIS Tools Course - Lesson 3 CAP Alerts
This concludes Lesson 3 of the DMIS Tools Course - CAP Alerts.